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Coombe Mill Blog
"Tales from the farmers wife" shares the funny and interesting happenings on our lovely holiday farm with Farmer Nick and our 6 children. A behind the scenes look on balancing family, farming, the holiday business and cooking for all.
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With Halloween just passed, Bonfire night coming up and Christmas festivities on the horizon this feels like a busy time of year for families. With this in mind I have a snappy to the point newsletter for you with updates from the farm, ideas to keep holidays in mind and the latest on November Events Cornwall.
Halloween Fun Day
Hot off the press our Halloween fun day was another year of spooktacular fun and games. From the morning fancy dress feed run to evening trick or treating, this remains probably the most popular event of the year. Jump ahead to book October half term next year and be part of fun.
The Golf Course has moved!
I mentioned last month that the train and golf course would be coming across the road as we separate Honeysuckle, Willow and Tree Roots cottages. The train was waiting till after Halloween so that we could run the ghost train, but the golf course has moved. It is now located where the under 5’s ride on play area was and Farmer Nick is working on a fun 7th hole into the little house.
Come and stay for New Year
Christmas is almost fully booked (unless you are a family of 4?) but we still have good availability for New Year. Come and join us for anything from 3 nights upwards. A holiday here is a perfect chance to walk off the Christmas calories on the farm and local beaches before warming up by our cosy log burners.
An imaginative Christmas Present
Don’t forget we have gift certificates from £50 upwards if you are looking for a different sort of gift for a family member this year. You can use our gift certificates with our “refer a friend” scheme saving you, and those you refer, £50 off your next booking with us.
Guest post of the month
This wonderful post came through to me on Facebook messenger. The family are now all grown up but still have fond childhood memories here with us. The property is long since gone and the pig field moved, the rest is very much Coombe Mill. Please do share your posts and pictures with me on social media using #CoombeMillHolidays or direct to our group or via the page or email.
It is such a wonderful surprise when I receive an enexpected message like this. “Hi Fiona and Nick. I wanted to share some photos I found of my two on holiday a few years ago now. What fantastic times we had too. Hope your both well and thanks again for … https://t.co/49SDAMczmdpic.twitter.com/dk3rvErU9N
We have so many baby guinea Pigs that we are going to need to re-home a few. Just ask if you fancy taking one home with you after your holiday. They make the most adorable pets.
We are now entering the Rutting season when Rudolph can become quite unpredictable and as such we are recommending that guests only go through the deer field with Farmer Nick on the morning feed run. Rudolph is however looking his most magnificent for his ladies with a full set of antlers.
Nb: I have not been paid or sponsored to mention these places, they are just the Cornish events November 2019 that I feel would be of interest to Coombe Mill Guests.
As a last note I will just say that we are open right through November and December if you fancy a long weekend break before the rush of Christmas. Have a good month whatever your plans and I hope we all enjoy some crisp sunny winter days.
As summer fades into autumn I like to take advantage of the abundance of blackberries here on the farm. Foraging, baking and crafting are a perfect use of blackberries. I try to mix things up a little each year so nothing is quite the same as the year before. While I had tried a version of all of these activities before, none of them were quite the same. There was something new with our blackberry fabric printing crafts for even our most regular guests.
Blackberry foraging
I handed out collecting tubs and we headed down to the river bank for a power 15 minute blackberry collecting session.
Health and Safety Awareness
Back at the craft tables, Guy led the children to wash their hands while I washed the blackberries to flush out any creepy crawlies.
Blackberry Muffins
All cleaned up we were ready to start work. I have a tried and trusted recipe for muffins which is ideally suited to adding any additional ingredient, like blackberries, and also easy for children to measure. With each child adding an ingredient and taking turns stirring while others set out the paper cases there is something to keep everyone in a large group engaged.
Blackberry Fabric Printing Crafts
Blackberry stained fairy clothes
While the muffins cooked in the oven I tipped out a bag of fairy clothes cut outs on to the table. The children had to find pairs of clothes lay out blackberries on one and squish the other on top. I stapled them all onto a line of string to make a fairy washing line to go in the fairy gardens above the new fairy house.
Blackberry tie dyed flags
Our final activity involved winding loom bands tightly around sections of triangular fabric. Next we dunked the fabric in blackberry juice before opening the fabric to reveal some fun circular designs. The children collected a stick for me to staple their tie dye triangle round to make a flag.
By the time the flags were completed the muffins were ready to eat. Even those who claimed not to like blackberries tried one. I think being involved in the whole cooking process makesw children more inclimed to have a taste. There were very few left for me to take home which is always the real test.
Each of these activities are both fun and educational for children. They held their attention and yet cost very little to put together. I would recommend them for a garden birthday party or perhaps a play date at home.
A sunny afternoon with a group of 2 – 6 year olds calls for some creative make believe. It is ages since I’ve focussed on our natural woodland here and the magic of the fairy garden. This was the week to change that with a creative afternoon of woodland wizards and fairies.
Usually I set up for activity hour outside the games room on the grass, however as this session was all about wizardry and the imagination that comes from our fairy garden I thought this would make the ideal place for our creative fun and set up the little bench table in there.
Nature Crowns
We began with nature crowns; these are something I’ve used in many guises before. Double sided sticky tape on stripes of cereal card is perfect. All the kids need to do is decide what nature they want to feature on their headdress.
Magic Wands
Another one we have done before but perfectly suited to the fairy garden where there are sticks and twigs in abundance. We simply used tape and ribbons to decorate the sticks into make believe wands.
Capes for Woodland Wizards and Fairies
For this I used old duvet covers from the business that were in my reject pile for being marked. I cut them into cape size rectangles for the children. They used paint and nature to print their capes then chose coloured ribbon to feed through slits in the top to wear as magic woodland wizards and fairies.
It was a lovely way to pass an afternoon and the children loved the setting. If they finished any of their activities early there was always plenty of fun in the fairy garden to keep them occupied until others caught them up. It would make a great them for a play date or birthday party and is surprising easy and cheep to do.
What you’ll need to create your own woodland wizards and fairies activity
Wands
Crowns
Capes
Sticks
tape
colourful ribbons or wool
Cereal boxes
double sided sticky tape
stapler
nature
Rectangles of material
Paint
stapler (if attaching nature)
nature
scissors
ribbon
All the fun of creating woodland wizards and fairies on film
We all know the value of enjoying books from an early age. Quarto Kids have a charming starter book illustrated by Camilla Falsini designed to grab the attention of little ones with a colourful and interactive look at Shapes. 5 Wild Shapes will appeal to children and parents. Read on to discover more and for your chance to win a copy.
More about 5 wild Shapes
The bold colour themes and shapes on every double page are eye catching. A short story of a couple of sentences ties the illustrations and shapes together while the reader is encouraged to get physical and move the counter around each shape. It is an adorable way for youngsters to learn about shapes and discover a little about animals and their habitats.
Find circle as a flower, triangle as a tree, heart as leaves on the trees, wavy as the sea and hexagon as a bees hive and square as a Farmer’s field. Well not Farmer Nick’s farm fields perhaps, but that’s another story! The chunky hardback book is designed to withstand handling by the most destructive toddler, while the wipe clean surface to each hardback page will ensure sticky fingers are not a problem.
Educational Benefits
Develops hand eye coordination
Builds cognitive skills
Inspires a deeper knowledge of the world
Video insight into 5 wild Shapes
Need to Know
RSP
£11.99
Age sutability
Age 3 upwards (due to small parts) but educationally suitable from Age 2
Product specification
Board book, 10 Pages
Illustrated by
Camilla Falsini
Published by
Quarto Kids
Stockists
Amazon, Waterstones, Book Depository, books Etc.
ISBN
9780711240889
Win your copy of 5 Wild Shapes with Quarto and Coombe Mill
For your chance to win a copy of this fun learning book simply follow the instructions below.
We were sent our copy of 5 wild shapes for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own. Our copy can be borrowed from the Coombe Mill Games Room for our guests to borrow on holiday.
As the beautiful autumn colours begin to take over our landscape, our thoughts turn to the clocks going back, a busy term for the children at school and Christmas. I hope you can take a few minutes out from it all and see what we have been up to here on the farm, along with some changes going forward. Our Cornish Events Guide October 2019 is handy if you are heading this way with your family.
All change for the cottages from November.
You’ll see from our pricing and availability page that the cottages over the road (Tree Roots, Willow and Honeysuckle) are no longer available to book. They are still owned by us but will be rentable via Sykes Cottages from November 2019. However, they will not be part of Coombe Mill, so no feed run, train rides or crazy golf. The train and crazy golf will move over the road to remain with Coombe Mill Holidays. This will take place over the winter and be a big project keeping Farmer Nick busy. We have done this to try and widen our appeal to an audience that may not have young children. For those of you who know and love Coombe Mill please do share us with friends and remember the ‘refer a friend’ scheme saves you money as well as anyone you refer. Miller’s House will now be the largest property sleeping 10, followed by Heligan Lodge for 8.
Christmas is coming.
Love or loath the subject of Christmas in October, there is no getting away from the fact it is only weeks away. If you’d rather hand all the stress over then why not bring the family to Coombe Mill? The feed run even runs on Christmas morning with a very festive Farmer Nick and our log burners make the perfect warming backdrop to all your festivities. We run 10 nights for the price of 7 up to or from 27th or you can book short breaks on most dates over the festive period to suit you.
Blackberry fun
Activity hour ended for the summer season with making the most of the huge supply of blackberries on the farm. We squished them, pulped them, made tie dye flags and yummy muffins. The next activity hour will be Halloween, watch out for some ghostly fun if you are with us then!
Thank you for all your photos and kind words
I have been sharing some wonderful posts on Facebook and Instagram from the #CoombeMillHolidays hashtag. Thank you for all the lovely photos and thoughtful things you’ve said about your stay with us. These, together with posts to our Facebook Group and Facebook Reviews are so valuable to us as recommendations for those who have not stayed before. My favourite this month has to be from Angela Cavanagh, You couldn’t make this up if you tried! Thank you to Angela for sharing.
On the Farm
Lambo is Pregnant
Who remembers hand feeding Lambo a bottle of milk in 2018? Well we thought she would never be strong enough to carry babies and left her for the summer season as company for Rambo, our breading Ram. Nick and I were both looking at her the other day and have decided she is actually pregnant! It could be a Christmas lamb for Coombe Mill. We will bring her indoors when the weather turns and watch her closely over the winter months.
Billy has his girls back
When there is a strong whiff of goats’ cheese passing through the farm we know that autumn is here and Billy Goat Gruff is keen to visit our nanny goats. There is no fighting nature on this one and they are all reunited for the winter season. This includes Dusty who was sent to the naughty step for escaping during the summer months. Fingers crossed they all be happy together and even reward us with a kid goat in spring.
Nb: I have not been paid or sponsored to mention these places, they are just the Cornish events October 2019 that I feel would be of interest to Coombe Mill Guests.
I hope you have a happy October. Pack in those autumn walks with wellies crunching through fallen leaves and admire the wonderful colours as the season changes.
“Tales from the farmers wife” shares life on our lovely holiday farm with Farmer Nick and our 6 children. Step into our beautiful 30 acres and experience nature close up with farming and educational crafts in stunning North Cornwall. Family, fun and adventure start here.
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